After Lighting up the Sun, I Went Ashore

My name is Zhang Ke, I am 26 years old, I have a Ph. D. In physics, and I have two top-notch papers. My instructor said I was the most talented student he had ever seen. But I was rejected from the national examination seven times in a row. The reasons are very unified: professional mismatch and experience mismatch. The instructor is critically ill, funding has been cut, and partners have withdrawn funding. That night when I was desperate, I made a decision in front of the table full of waste paper: Don't you want "visible results"? Okay, then I will build one for you to see. I put the title in the live broadcast room: "It is better to build the sun than to take public exams" and started to rub the nuclear fusion device with my hands. Thirty million people call me crazy. Thirty days later, a beam of artificial sunlight pierced the dome of the laboratory. The city's power grid was instantly paralyzed. Satellites in half of Asia captured the flash. The security service broke in. A message popped up on my phone: "Notice from the National Energy Administration: You have been hired with exception." I thought this was the end of the story. Later I learned that becoming a civil servant was just the beginning. Old energy empire, international capital, technological blockade, great power competition... What is more complicated than nuclear fusion is always the human heart. But I don't care. Whatever I promised my teacher, I must do it. I have to let this light shine into thousands of homes.